


The big book of Whump

by SunflowerPao



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Multi, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23515498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunflowerPao/pseuds/SunflowerPao
Summary: Very clumsy high schoolers and a big imagination: compilation of sickfics and hurtfics of your favorite drama department
Relationships: Big Red/Ashlyn Caswell, Big Red/Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), E.J. Caswell/Nini Salazar-Roberts, Gina Porter/Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell, Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts, Seb Matthew-Smith/Carlos Rodriguez
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	1. Let it burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> EJ tried really hard to be perfect, perfect boyfriend, perfect teammate, perfect student, perfect son. What happens when the pressure becomes too much?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I’m not from the states so things about college and applications are different, I watched some videos to have more info.  
> Second this is heavily inspired by Emily in ppl as it was hard for me to find water polo injuries.  
> Enjoy :)

The majority of the drama gang was either a junior or a sophomore, they didn’t have to worry about college application just yet, well except for EJ from the start of the school year he had been trying to get the best grades so his GPA wouldn’t drop, doing community service at a dog shelter to complete his extracurricular curriculum, and on top of that he had water polo practice at 6 in the morning and rehearsal from 4 to 7 in the afternoon, his day was packed in between trying to be a good student, being the best Beast possible so Miss Jenn could see she was not wrong for casting him and also trying to be the best boyfriend to Ricky. 

EJ had always been a very responsible guy, never missed practiced, always handed in is assignments on time, knew his lines from the musical and always paid attention to Ricky. His senior was looking good, too good to be truth. 

It started with a very stressful week, he had to send the majority of his college applications, so he had to finish essays and letters and pretty much pour his heart and soul. He applied to a variety of colleges from locals, like university of Utah, he also applied to Stanford which was a really long shot but didn’t lose anything trying. But most importantly he sent his application to USC, he had been following their water polo team and they were good, they also had a very strong music theater department, there he knew he could do both things he loved. He wanted to apply before any scouts contacted him, he wanted to demonstrate he was also a good student, hoping to get a full ride on a sport scholarship. 

So that week he barely got 4 hours of sleep per day, and it was showing, he was living out of coffee and Red bull, on Wednesday, they did a scrimmage with the JV team and he never played that bad in his life, his coach pulled him out in the middle of the game and EJ just wanted practice to end. 

It got worst, with a lot on his minds he forgot his 2-month anniversary with Ricky, so when he met him at his locker that morning with a box of chocolates and a card, he knew he was toasted. 

“Hey babe, Happy anniversary” said the junior kissing him in the lips and handing him the box “So I was thinking maybe we could go to dinner after rehearsal, you known I been dying to go to that Italian place near my house, what do you think?” 

EJ knew he had to finish a history project for tomorrow, but I could it wait, his boyfriend deserved everything. 

“Yeah, that is a perfect idea, I got your present in my car” total lie, but he could get him some flowers after school.

“You are the best you know that” he was trying, he really was trying. 

So that night after rehearsal they had dinner at that Italian restaurant and a hot make out session in his car, he got Ricky a bouquet of sunflowers and his face when he saw them made everything worthy. He got to his house around 11, that meant he had to finish his project, also study for a calculus quiz and try to get at least sleep 4 hours, it was going to be a long night. It was around 11:30 when he got to work after taking a shower and prepared a pot of hot black coffee, he opened his computer and started to work hoping he could finish on time.

And he did, he finished his project, he knew it wasn’t his best but at least A minus material, he also aced his quiz and now was walking to rehearsal, he could feel getting tired so he went to get a coffee, as he entered the auditorium he saw everyone was already there, he sat down while Miss Jenn explained that today they were going over lines. 

“EJ we are going to start with you, page 8 scene 2, the one you talk with Lumier and Mrs. Potts about Belle” he loved every scene he got to share with Ricky, his boyfriend was playing Lumier and loved when he talked in a French accent. 

“Uh, master. Have you thought that, perhaps, this girl could be the one to break the spell?” said Ricky with his cute accent. 

“Of course, I have. I'm not a fool” said the senior.

“Good. You fall in love with her, she falls in love with you, and--Poof!--the spell is broken! We'll be human again by midnight!” said Ricky then it was turn of the sophomore that was playing mrs. Potts.

“Oh, it's not that easy, Lumiere. These things take time” 

“But the rose has already begun to wilt.” Now it was EJ turn again.

“It's no use. She is so.. she is so” he knew this line, he practiced this line, this couldn’t be happening. His mind was complete blank he couldn’t remember what was next.

“Beautiful, EJ, she is so beautiful, that’s the line, sweetie we are 6 weeks away from opening night, this shouldn’t be happening right now, you need to know your lines like the palm of your hand. This goes out to everyone” EJ felt his cheeks heat up, he was very good with his lines this never happened to me him before. 

They continued the rehearsal, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was disappointing everyone, he was lead of the musical he needed to be at his A game at all time. 

So that night when he got home, after helping with dinner a taking a shower he had to go over all of his lines, so what happened today wouldn’t happen again.

He was in the middle of the second act when he looked at the time 1:43 in the morning, he cursed to himself, he was supposed to fished at 1 so he could work on his English essay, he went down stairs for a red bull, only to realized he had run out, black coffee it is. 

That weekend all he wanted was to rest and sleep, but he had community service on Saturday and promised his mom to help with her book club on Sunday so he didn’t get to sleep late either day, after that he tried to nap but it was useless his sleep schedule was really messed up. 

EJ had always been a very responsible organized guy but slowly everything started spiraling out of control, he could not function if he didn’t drink at least 3 cups of coffee, he felt asleep while showering and on his car, but no one could know he was struggling, he was EJ musical start, A strait student athlete, he had to pretend everything was fine. 

Until it wasn’t. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a week since the line incident and things for EJ weren’t getting any better. He had always had a queasy stomach but in the last week or so he started feeling like something burn his stomach, his mom said it was probably gastritis form all the coffee he was drinking so he bought a bottle of antacid and hoped for the best. 

On Monday after rehearsal he received a call from an unknown number, he thought is was probably wrong number, but he answered any ways. 

“Hello” he answered as he was waiting for Ricky on his car. 

“Hello, my name is Mark Stewart I’m the coach from water polo and swimming at the university of southern California” at this his heart started beating really fast. 

“So, we saw your application and I been talking to some coaches down in Utah, they speak highly of you” he didn’t who they were but boy he wanted to kiss them right now. 

“I talked to your coach this afternoon and asked him if I could come to your next game, he said yes, so I just wanted to let you know. You have potential son I want to see it with my own eyes, see on Friday” 

“Thank you very much for this opportunity, you’ll see, I’ll give everything I got on Friday” he wanted to cry from excitement. 

“See you on Friday EJ” when he finished the call his boyfriend was getting into his car. 

“EJ are you okay? Are you crying?” he didn’t think twice and kissed his boyfriend like never before

“I just got a call form a scout, from a USC scout, I could actually have a shot a division one water polo” 

“EJ I so proud of you, that scout is going to see how amazing you are” he knew his boyfriend didn’t know anything about water polo, but he always supported him. 

“Yeah he is going to come to my game on Friday” he started the car, taking the road to drop his boyfriend 

“Baby you know we have long rehearsal on Thursday because on Friday Miss Jenn is going to that retreat” he knew Ricky didn’t meant to upset him, but I was true he had to be prefect on the rehearsal and on the game. 

“Why do you worry? Ricky you know I can do more than that”

“I know you do, but got to take care of yourself” 

“Don´t worry I always do” as he finished saying that they arrived at Ricky’s house they said goodbye and he drove to his house. 

When he got there he knew that Friday was his big chance, he needed to work out to impress the scout, so before doing his homework he started doing some push-ups and pull-ups, he needed to work on his core and he finished doing some crunches, when he was doing his last set he felt a strain in his side, maybe he was really excited and pulled a muscle, he got the shower and after finishing he went to his bathroom cabinet and found some icy hot, he felt instant relief after applying to his side He finished his homework and went to sleep, he could finally sleep.

Or so he thought, his mid kept wandering around, the idea that a scout was coming to see him seemed so surreal, he needed to be at his best. 

He went to practice in the morningl but no before taking a cup of coffee and a spoon of antacid it wasn’t healthy, but he needed to get to Friday in one piece. Practice went smooth but the muscle on his side was really started to bother him, he put some more icy hot and headed to his classes. 

At rehearsal they were practicing the ball scene, the choreography was almost perfect, expect for the lifts, he loved Kourtney but sometimes because she was new to this she got scared, he tried to help her and relax at the lifts. They were at the last lift when EJ felt his stomach starting to burn, he had to find a replacement for coffee. They finished and the senior quickly took a gulp of antacid. 

“You know that is gross, right?” he saw his boyfriend standing next to him. 

“I know but it’s better than a burning stomach”

EJ pulled Ricky into a hug but his side protested again. He winced and Ricky looked at him suspiciously. 

“EJ are you hurt?” Ricky was getting serious and there wasn’t no way to avoid this. 

“Maybe” he couldn’t lie to him about this “I kind of pulled a muscle, it’s nothing really” 

“EJ that is not nothing, you need to take of yourself and this is not it” he didn’t want to get mad at his boyfriend, but this was very important to him. 

“You think I don’t know that? I wish I could get more than 4 hours of sleep at night, or play videogames but I can’t, I just can’t I don’t have the time, I need to be great at practice, great at rehearsals and on top of that I need keep up my grades, no I don’t have time to worry about a little pain when I got lots of things on plate” at the end he realized he was more than yelling and Ricky was not only mad but upset. 

“When you decide what is more important to you call me” and with that he left Ricky alone in the rehearsal room. 

The drive home was long as he knew he should apologize to curly boy, he was only trying to look out for him, but he really wanted to blow some steam. He started doing the same routine as last night, but he got a little carried away with the crutches, he realized that the pain on his side wasn’t going away, he knew he should worry but he just put some more icy hot and went to do his homework. 

Thursday was a blur to him, he really didn’t talk to anybody, his boyfriend was mad but right now he had better things to worry, and they had a long rehearsal, so after school he went to the pool to do laps and prepare for tomorrow’s game, his side was starting to get worse but he couldn’t do anything about it but put icy hot on it. 

At rehearsal he was doing a scene with Ricky and everyone could sense that they weren’t at their best right now. It the middle of a scene out of nowhere EJ felt his lunch coming up his throat and ran to find the closet trash can, he could hear his name being called but he kept running. 

He found one outside the auditorium and started to pour his gut out, God he hated throwing up, when he was about to get up he felt a hand on his back. 

“You finished?” he heard a voice asked, which turned out to be Ricky. 

“Yeah I think so” he got up and sat on the wall behind him. 

“What happened? You just ran”

“I been feeling sick all day, my stomach is burning, and the antacid is no use anymore” Ricky was looking out him really worried 

“Well did you tell someone?” EJ shocked his head no. “Are you feeling dizzy?”

“I’m sorry about the other night, I know you are just looking out for me and I kind of exploded, I wanted to call you but I didn’t know what to say, I’m sorry I’m such a jerk” 

“You kind of are but you are my jerk, baby I know you have that game tomorrow, but I think you should rest tonight, no late night sleeping or anything and for the love of god, drink anything else that is not coffee” the junior was now seating next to him.

“That means you are coming to my game?” 

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world” he was about to kiss Ricky, when he remembers he has just throwed up “So I think I need to clean up before I go back” 

“Yeah I tell Miss Jenn what happened” his boyfriend left and EJ told himself, just one more day, just one day.

At night even though he promised Ricky he would rest his mind was doing circles and he was really nervous for tomorrow; this could define his future. 

He walked downs stairs and made a tea to help him sleep. 

It was an hour before the game, and like yesterday EJ had just threw up, he thought it was because he was nervous and took a big gulp of antacid, everyone was gathering in the locker room, it was show time. 

When the game started, he could see his friends in the stands but most importantly he saw a USC hat and that made his heart pound ten times faster, this was it, his big opportunity. 

The game was going great, he was playing his best, but in one play a guy from the other team hit him in his side, and that got EJ seeing starts, that made his stomach burn but he had to ignore it, he had a game to win. 

They tied them in the last minute, it wasn’t the best outcome, but the senior knew his performance was really good, the team was happy but the pain in his side wasn’t going away either was the burning sensation, before getting in the shower he took another gulp of antacid. 

He showered and was looking for Ricky in the hallway when a man approached him, it was the scout, once again he could feel his hear pounding. 

“EJ, I assume?” asked the man. 

“Yeah, pleasure to meet you sir”

“The pleasure is mine, I was expecting a good player, but I found a great one” the senior wanted to scream. 

“So, I need to talk to the department about the offer, but we are looking at a full ride here son, would you like that?” he almost kissed the man. 

“It would be an honor”

“Great to hear that son, I’ll call you next week to see all the details, have a nice weekend” when the scout left EJ dropped everything and started to jump like a little girl. 

“Why are we jumping?” he turned around and found Ricky also jumping and he just laughed and hugged him. 

“Because… I think I just got into USC” 

“OMG EJ that is great, we need to celebrate this, Denny’s?” 

“You read my mind” He saw Ricky walking and bent down to pick up his things, but when he was getting up, he felt a stabbing pain in his side, an excruciating pain like never before. 

He dropped to the floor unable to stand the pain he was feeling, he felt his stomach was burning from the inside, he never had pain like this in his life, he couldn’t even scream he just wanted to curl up and make the pain stop. 

Ricky was about to get to the door, when he realized he was waking by himself. 

“EJ?” he went back to his boyfriend, only to find him on the floor crying form the pain, he didn’t think twice and called an ambulance. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EJ knew he was in a bed, but it wasn’t his bed, he wasn’t in is room it smelt very clean. He could hear beeping sounds, so he decided to open his eyes, which he regretted instantly the light was very bright, but he found out he was in a hospital.

Then he remembered, the locker and the pain, and Ricky crying, he needed Ricky, he needed him now. 

His boyfriend was sleeping holding his hand at his bed side, he moved him a little and the curly boy woke up. 

“Hey” EJ said

“No, no you don’t hey me after you almost gave me a heart attack, I never want to see like that again” he could tell he had been crying.

“What happened, I just remember you calling for help and the I woke up here”

“Well did you know you can get a stressed induced ulcer? well I didn’t know 3 hours ago, but you can” an ulcer, but he was only 17.

“So apparently you were drinking huge amounts of coffee which caused gastritis but because you didn’t treat it and were worried about everything but your health, it got worse” shit what had he done to himself. 

“So, remember the pain you had? Well that was the ulcer telling to stop, but because you are you, and you didn’t, it got worse. The pain made you passed out, you pretty much have a hole in your stomach now and need to take it easy for the next weeks to you can get better” that was a lot to take. 

“I know it’s a lot, your parents are talking to the doctors and they say you need to rest and you are clinically exhausted, for now, just forget about drinking coffee like in the next 4 years and close your eyes again, you need to sleep” said Ricky while stocking his hand. 

“I love when you take care of me” 

“Yeah I know, I’m the best”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any request for a sickfic I’m all ears, leave your comment and I’ll add It to my list


	2. What goes up, comes down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RINI  
> Ricky wanted to try a new trick on his board, he didn't know it would send him to the hospital

It had been a very stressful week, with midterms coming up and trying to balance theater, Nini, and his friends Ricky barely had time to himself. So, on Friday when Miss Jenn decided that everyone needed a break from the musical and gave them the day off, he almost jumped out of excitement. The curly boy was really looking forward to trying the new vert ramp in skate park and this was the perfect opportunity. 

After the bell rang announcing the end of classes, he told Nini he meet her at her locker hoping to see if she wanted to go with him to the skate park, he knew skating wasn’t her cup of tea, but he could at least try. 

Waiting for his girlfriend he started watching a YouTube video of this new skate trick he wanted to try when Nini appeared with Kourtney at her side.

Nini kissed Ricky on the lips and opened her locker “Hey babe, since rehearsal is canceled Ashley invited us to watch her sing at this coffee shop downtown, like around 7ish” 

“Yeah cool, I could ask my dad if could borrow the beetle that way I could drive you home after” He was trying to use every excuse possible to drive the beetle, the junior wanted to show his dad that he was responsible enough to drive the car and let him have it permanently. 

Kourtney’s phone went off and she quickly said her goodbye “So see you guys later, I said I meet Seb at the mall to help him get his brother a birthday present” 

After Kourtney left, they started walking towards the door and Nini kept talking about how much work she had left behind because of the musical and that she really needed to catch on an essay that was due at midnight. 

“Maybe this isn’t the best time, but I was actually going to invite you to the skate park with me, but I guess, some other time?” Guess he could ask Big Red if he wanted to come, since Ricky got back together with Nini and Red started going out with Ashlyn they barely saw each other outside of school.

“I’m sorry Ricky, but if I want to go tonight to support Ash I have to fish that stupid essay” he could see she didn’t want to upset him and knowing her if he kept complaining she would end up coming with him so he just told her it was fine. 

“Really Neens don’t worry, I pick you up at 7, is that okay?” immediately I could see the relief in her face. 

She kissed the boy goodbye before climbing at her mom’s car. 

When Ricky got home, he noticed that his dad’s car wasn’t in the driveway, there was a note in the kitchen counter with the keys of the beetle on top. 

Champ, had to leave for work  
Coming back tomorrow morning  
There’s money for pizza and a little something extra  
Be careful if I find even a scratch this is not happening again. 

Love, Dad 

This meant to things, his dad wouldn’t know at what time he got home, and two he had the car all to himself. 

He tried calling Big Red several times, when he finally picked up it was barely a whispe.r

“Sorry bro, I’m at the movies right now, see you tonight” well that was expected, guess he was going alone. 

After eating some leftovers, Ricky started that skate video again trying to see if he could do that trick on the ramp.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he got to the park there was very little people for a Friday night, but he just smiled to himself, more space for him. 

Quickly he fasted his knee pads and his helmet, because safety first. He started slowing just going up and down the ramp like he knew, getting used to it. 

After a few practice runs and watching the video like a thousand times he was going to try a 360º in the air, he knew it how to do it in the ground so he figured out it was the same. He realized that is battery was running extremely low, so for the mean time he decided to turn it off.

The first couple of tries he didn’t get enough air to try the 360º, so Ricky kept trying, sometimes it was good, but he kept falling on his ass in the process, the junior had his fair shares of sprains and scrapes, his battle wounds he called them, it was cool showing them off after nailing a new trick.

This trick was harder than Ricky expected but he was not going to give up, he took a big breath in the edge on the ramp trying to visualize himself doing the turn, he gripped his board and went down, when he got to the other side he had enough air to do the flip, so he did. When he got the grip of his board he descended to the other side. 

“Finally” the curly haired teen said to himself, but wanted to try one more time before filming it and showing it. 

Big Red was going to flip seeing this. 

Ricky gather himself one more time, he got ready to go down. He was feeling pretty good once he knew he could do it was easier; he got to the other side and did the flip in the air; the problem was that he lost his footing trying to get on his board again. 

It happened really fast, he felt his ankle crash underneath him at platform of the ramp, he didn’t have time to respond as he went backwards and felt his head collide with edge of the ramp, he felt himself falling down, but everything went dark. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His head hurt like someone had smacked him his board and felt an unusual pressure around is ankle, he could hear voices around him, but it wasn’t someone he knew or at least Ricky didn’t remember them. 

“You think we should call an ambulance?” he sounded like someone older.

“Look men his waking up” when Ricky opened his eyes, he saw two boys, one who he had never seen, he looked a lot older than him and the other one was Jack, he was a senior at east high, they meet at the skate park like a year ago. 

“What happened?” All he could remember getting enough air, but not how he got to the bottom of the ramp. 

“Well we were in the pool behind you and then we heard a scream and a loud thud, so we ran and found you at the bottom passed out, you hit your head pretty hard. You think you can get up?”

He gave Ricky a hand and got up, but when he put pressure in his left leg, it buckled underneath him, it felt like someone was stabbing him with a million knives. 

“Ouch” he quickly sat down again, he probably had sprained it, damn how was he going to explain to Miss Jenn this, at least he had the weekend to ice it and try to get better by Monday. 

“You hurt ankle?” Jack asked him as the knelt down beside him. 

“I think so, fuck that hurt” 

“Let me see, I’m intern, also if you feel dizzy tell me you, could have a concussion. I’m Parker by the way” said the older guy as he started unlacing Ricky’s vans. 

“I’m Ricky, yeah I think is a sprain is not my first time” he knew he was lying to himself, his ankle hurt like never before. 

After unlacing his shoe and rolling up his pant leg, Ricky wanted to smack that guy’s hand, he said something about med, so he hoped he knew what he was doing.

“Man, you really did a number on this one. We better take you to the hospital that looks like is swelling up really quickly, it could be broken” when he finished saying that Ricky’s eyes traveled to his ankle that now looked the size of softball, he could feel his lunch coming up is throat. 

“Fuck” was all Ricky could say, probably broken. Nini was going to kill him. 

“You got someone coming for you?” asked Jack 

“No, I drove here” shit, just when his dad started trusting him with the car. 

“I was going to the hospital to star my shift, Jack and I can drive you down there, and someone can come pick your car later” 

“Yeah, thanks guys” both Jack and Parker helped Ricky stand up, hobbling without putting any weigh in his ankle they made it to their car which smelled like lavender, Nini liked lavender. He looked at the time 7:34, shit Nini would have his head. 

He got his phone out of his pocket only to realized that his screen had crack and that he ran out of batter. 

“Parker, do you have phone changer?” he handed him the cable and he boy hoped for the best as they drove to the hospital. 

The guys bought a wheelchair and helped him inside the E.R. not before Ricky threw up his lunch in the trashcan outside the doors, maybe he did have a concussion after all. Ricky was told that he needed an adult as he was not 18 yet and neither was Jack, he knew he had to call his dad, but as his day got better his dad’s phone went straight to voice mail. 

He had another choice, Ricky didn’t want to bother them, but his ankle really hurt and wanted the doctors to look at it so, he decided to call Nini’s moms. 

As he was going to call them, an upcoming called appeared. Nini was calling him. 

“Neens”

“No Ricky no Neens, if you are going to bail on me, bail on your friends at least let us know ahead. I waited for you like an hour, and called you like a hundred times, Kourt gave me a ride, so yeah, I hope you have a good reason, everyone is asking where you are” she was mad, maybe calling her moms was a bad idea. 

“Let me explain” but when was about to tell her everything, Jack came back with a bunch of forms. 

“They said they need to know your medical history and shit, said something about your insurance number, you talked with your girlfriend’s moms?” Ricky knew Nini probably hear about 90% of that conversation. 

“About to do that, thanks Jack”as the older teen sat down, Ricky went back to his phone call.

“Ricky care to explain why you need your insurance number?”  
“I kind of fell... like form the top of a ramp, I passed out like a couple of minutes and also they think I broke my ankle, so can we get to the yelling later I need to ask your moms if they can come to the hospital I kind of need and adult and my dad is not answering” he said everything in less than 30 seconds and closed his eyes as he fished. 

There was about 10 seconds of silence, he could only hear the music at the background

“I’m in the E.R. at General Hospital, can you call them?” by the time he was finished asking that, the call had ended. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After his phone call with Nini they got him into a gurney and started an IV, Jack had to leave, but told him he would see him at school. A really nice nurse gave him a shot of something for the pain and he started to relax, he closed his eyes trying to fight the tears, with Jack he couldn’t let out all of his feelings out, but he knew he would have quit the musical, he knew that his friends and Miss Jenn would be mad at him, and Nini she was probably furious she had never hung up the phone like that. 

The curly boy really wanted curl up in his bed and sleep for the rest of the weekend. A doctor came up to him and told him that he needed a CT scan for his probable concussion, and the look of his ankle told him that it could be a severe sprain or a clear break, he needed an x-ray to confirm it. 

Now he really started crying and the doctor told him that everything was going to be okay and he would get better, but what hurt Ricky the most was that he was alone, or at least that’s what he thought. 

He closed his eyes again, but a very concerned voice made him open them “Ricky, you okay honey?” it was Carol one of Nini’s moms. 

“Hi, yeah I’m okay I really thought Nini hadn’t called you” after she didn’t respond he lost all hope. 

“What and leave you all alone? I could never baby” said Nini coming from the opposite side of the gurney.

“But you hang up” he could feel the tears coming out. 

“Ricky it was a lot to take in, I could hear how scared you were, so I hang up because I called my moms as fast as I could, after that, I told everyone why you didn’t show up and Big Red offered me a ride, he wanted to be here, actually everyone wanted to be here but I knew you didn’t want a crowd”

“So, you are not mad at me standing you up?” 

“No baby, actually I feel terrible for yelling at you on the phone before you told me you were here, I know you didn’t want to be alone” she kissed him the forehead. 

“I love you; you know that?” he knew he was really lucky to have her at his side.

“And I love you too, so what happened? what did the doctor said?” the junior grimaced remembering everything that happened. 

“So I was trying this new trick, I got it once and then I tried again but I couldn't hold my board, so I lost my footing and my ankle collided with I guess the edge of the ram and then I hit my head. Do you remember that the senior I told you about, Jack? yeah so, he was there and apparently his brother is doctor here” he saw that Dana was now here too. 

“When I tried to get up my ankle really hurt so he checked it and said something about possible break, I had drove to the park so there was no way I could drive myself to the ER, they got me here, and after that I called you. They gave me shot of I think is was morphine and now I'm here waiting for the X Rays, and they think I have a concussion, but they don’t know” he was crying at this point and Carol gave him a tissue. 

“I'm really sorry Nini I never wanted to disappoint it anyone in the musical but if it's broken, I probably have to wear cast for about a month and I don't know if I'm going to be able to do the musical” he could not look at her. 

“Ricky right now you need to focus on getting better, I know Miss is going to understand, plus the musical is 2 months away, you can always go to rehearsal with crutches, everything is going to be okay”

“You think so?” he needed to hear it from someone he knew, specially from her. 

“Yeah, now relax and wait for the x-ray”

After 5 hours of x-rays, scans and diagnosis Ricky was leaving to hospital with a red cast that was from his to toes to below his knee, it was a clear break and will heal fast if he was careful enough, they gave him a pair of crutches and said he had a minor concussion. His dad finally answered and apologized profoundly saying he was coming back right now, and that he would get the beetle from the skatepark tomorrow. 

For the meantime Nini’s moms took him to their house to rest, so he and Nini decided to watch his favorite movie and order pizza, this was definitely not how he imagined his Friday night, but was thankful for the girl at his side.


End file.
